The Rejection

The pain started in my chest and spread like wildfire through every nerve ending. 

I stood in the great hall of Shadow Creek Pack, wearing the white dress I'd saved for three years—ever since the night Ryker first told me I was his mate. The same dress now felt like a shroud as five hundred wolves watched my world crumble.

"I, Alpha Ryker Blackstone, reject you, Aria Winters, as my mate and Luna of Shadow Creek Pack."

The words echoed in the vast space, each syllable a nail in my coffin. My wolf, Maya, howled in agony inside me, but her cries seemed distant, weaker than they should be. Everything about me was weaker than it should be.

"Ryker, please—" I reached for him, but he stepped back, his green eyes cold as winter frost.

"You've been sick four times this month alone, Aria. You can barely shift anymore. How can you protect this pack? How can you give me strong heirs when you can barely stand through a ceremony?"

He was right. Even now, my legs trembled, and the familiar nausea rose in my throat. I'd been getting weaker for the past two years, ever since my father remarried and Selene became my stepsister.

"I can get better "

"No." He turned to where Selene stood, radiant in a red dress that hugged her perfect curves. "The pack needs a strong Luna. I choose Selene Winters as my chosen mate."

The crowd gasped. Choosing my own stepsister was a blow even I hadn't seen coming.

Selene glided forward, each step graceful and sure—everything I wasn't. She touched my shoulder gently, and for a moment, I smelled something strange on her fingers. Something herbal and bitter.

"I'm so sorry, Aria," she whispered, but her blue eyes gleamed with triumph. "But the pack must come first. You understand, don't you? You've always been so selfless."

The formal rejection required my response. If I didn't accept it, the pain would continue, potentially killing us both. My wolf was already fading, barely a whisper now.

"I... I accept your rejection," I choked out.

The mate bond snapped. I collapsed to my knees, clutching my chest. But through the agony, I heard Ryker's next words clearly.

"As Alpha, I hereby banish Aria Winters from Shadow Creek Pack. You have one hour to leave our territory."

"Banishment?" My stepmother, Gloria, stepped forward, playing the part of the concerned parent. "Surely that's excessive, Alpha. She's no threat—"

"A rejected mate living in the pack while I take another is a recipe for disaster," Ryker said coldly. "One hour, Aria. Don't make me enforce it."

I struggled to my feet, my body shaking. The pack members parted as I walked toward the door, some with pity, others with relief. I'd never been strong enough for them anyway. The omega healer who couldn't even heal herself.

"Aria, wait!" 

I turned to see Marcus, one of the pack warriors and my only real friend, pushing through the crowd.

"This is wrong," he said loudly. "She's served this pack faithfully for years. You can't just—"

Ryker's Alpha command filled the room. "Anyone who helps her will share her banishment."

Marcus froze, forced to submit. His eyes met mine, full of apology.

I ran.

My small cabin sat at the edge of pack territory—another sign of my low status. I threw essentials into a bag: clothes, the small amount of money I'd saved, my mother's jewelry box. My hands shook as I grabbed my healer's supplies. Even banished, I couldn't abandon my calling.

A wave of nausea hit so hard I barely made it to the bathroom. When I finished being sick, I noticed the pregnancy test I'd bought yesterday but hadn't had the courage to use. I'd wanted to surprise Ryker after the ceremony.

With trembling fingers, I took the test.

Two lines.

Pregnant.

I was carrying the child of the mate who'd just rejected and banished me. The irony was so bitter I laughed, a sound closer to a sob.

A knock at the door made me jump. Had Ryker changed his mind?

But it was Selene, now wearing the Luna crown that should have been mine.

"Forgot something," she said sweetly, entering without invitation. She went to the kitchen and picked up a special tea tin—the one she'd given me months ago for my "health problems."

"Can't have you taking my special blend with you," she said. "Though I suppose it doesn't matter now. You won't be needing it anymore."

"Your special blend?" Something cold settled in my stomach.

"Oh, Aria." She laughed, a tinkling sound like broken glass. "Did you really think you suddenly got weak on your own? This wonderful wolfsbane mixture has been suppressing your wolf for two years. Just enough to make you seem pathetic, not enough to kill you. Though honestly, you made it so easy, always trusting your dear sister."

The room spun. "You poisoned me?"

"Poisoned is such an ugly word. I prefer... strategically weakened. Ryker never would have rejected you if you'd stayed strong. But a weak, sickly mate? Easy to discard."

"Why?" The word came out broken.

"Because I've loved him since I was fifteen. Because I deserve to be Luna. And because you were in my way." She moved closer, and I could smell that bitter herb scent again. "Though I should thank you. If you hadn't been so pathetically grateful for a sister's kindness, none of this would have worked."

She headed for the door, then paused. "Oh, and Aria? If you're thinking of coming back or telling anyone... don't. I have enough wolfsbane to kill you properly this time. And Ryker will believe anything I tell him now."

The door closed behind her, leaving me alone with the shattered pieces of my life.

I had twenty minutes left. Twenty minutes before patrol wolves would forcibly remove me.

I grabbed my bag and ran into the forest, no destination in mind except away. The pack bonds broke one by one as I crossed the territory line, each snap another piece of my identity gone.

I was packless. Pregnant. Poisoned for two years by someone I'd trusted.

But for the first time in two years, I was also free of Selene's tea.

I wondered what that would mean.